"My first thought was, 'Y'all are messing with me,' " the Cullman, Ala., native, 32, told People. He said he broke the news to his wife of three years, actress-dancer Jenna Dewan-Tatum, under less than romantic circumstances. "I told Jenna after we'd been in the bathtub washing our dogs because they'd gotten skunked."

Her response? "She was like, 'What?' "

But only until the news sank in. "Well obviously I agree!" his wife wrote on her Twitter page. "Good job @peoplemag! Congrats to my humble, loving, talented and yes -- SEXY -- love @channingtatum!!"

"People know him to be fun and sexy," she added to People, "but they don't know how emotionally deep and spiritually open he is. He is such an openhearted person; what you see is what you get."

Tatum's friend and "21 Jump Street" co-star Jonah Hill joined in the congratulations, comically tweeting a photo of himself preparing to lick what appears to be an advance copy of the issue, which comes out Friday. "You've always been the sexiest man alive to me! (Congrats pal!)" he wrote.

As for Tatum, he says he'd like next to be a family man. "I'm ready; I think she's ready" to have children, he says of himself and his wife, whom he met when they starred together in the dance movie "Step Up" (2006).